Loose-leaf binder.



A. OPALLA.

LOOSE LEAF BINDER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 13, 1909.

1,017,,1 65, Patented Feb. 13, 1912.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH COHWASHINGTON. n. c.

ARTHUR OPALLA, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0

' RALPH B. WILSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

LOOSE-LEAF BINDER.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR OPALLA, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Loose-Leaf Binders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus for the binding together in book form, and in less or greater numbers as may be expedient, or according to the progress of the account, of so-called loose leaves; that is, it relates to an expansible and contractible holder or binder for such leaves, permitting their in dividual insertion or removal as desired. Its object is primarily to remove or obviate a certain tendency to stick or halt in manipulation noticeable in some binders of that type and incidentally to afford a skeleton protection to the back, dispensing, if so desired, with the telescoping back-plates heretofore employed; further, to attain greater and more easy expansion and contraction, more rapid action, and a saving in material, which makes a lighter, less expensive and therefore more popular-priced article.

The invention consists, generally speaking, in combining with parallel clamping or cover-plates two pair of oppositely extending interpivoted toggle or shear-levers arranged between said cover-plates and trending lengthwise thereof, that is to say, par allel with the back of the book, connections between the ends of the outer or longer arms of each pair and the respective coverplates, which permit hinging, means for simultaneously expending or contracting the shorter arms of said pairs, and means in the train permitting slip to accommodate the areal movement of the ends of said lever.-

It consists further in the various other combinations and details of construction hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings: Figure l is an inner face view, in elevation, of a binder of the top-lock type, omitting the covers, constructed in accordance with my invention, showing all the parts closed and, in dotted lines, a key inserted to expand them; Fig. 2, a like View of said binder with the parts expanded; Fig. 3, a transverse view through the expanded binder, on the correspondingly numbered line in the first figure, viewed in the direction indicated by the arrows; Fig. 4:, a rear view of an alternative Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 13, 1912.

Application filed May 13, 1909. Serial No. 495,815.

form of said top-lock binder, partly expanded, showing means for preventing relative shift of the cover-plates, and Fig. 5, a fragmentary view explanatory of a modification in the shifting guides or connections between the outer arms of the shear levers and the cover plates.

' Referring now to the said drawings, the numeral 1 indicates the upper clamping or cover-plate of the binder, and 2 the lower clamping or cover-plate, both being rightangular in cross-section and of a length according to the height of the page. For convenience of description the flanges of these cover-plates which serve for the attachment of the covers will be termed the horizontal flanges, and those which close over the back of the book will be styled the perpendicular flanges. A key-hole 3 is formed through the horizontal flange of one of the cover-plates, herein shown as the upper, through which a key 4 gains access to a right and left screw-threaded shaft or spindle 5 arranged centrally of the length of the cover-plates and at right angles thereto, so that it will be vertical when the book is laid flat. The term top-lock is due to the location of the key-head of this locking spindle. The length of the spindle is limited to the distance between the horizontal flanges of the cover-plates, plus a key-head 6 which may project through the key-hole when these plates are in the extreme of their retracted position. This limitation is merely to avoid unnecessary protuberance. Upon one of the threads of the spindle is mounted a carriage or nut-block 7 and upon the other a like carriage or nut-block 8, so that when the spindle is turned these blocks, being held from rotating with it, will be spread apart or brought together according to the direction of rotation, moving in right Y lines perpendicular to the cover-plates.

In the construction shown in the first three figures of the drawing, slotted plates or hangers 9, parallel with the vertical flanges of the cover-plates, are secured to their horizontal flanges, one near each end thereof, and into the slots 10 of these hangers, forming guides and represented as trending obliquely inward toward the median line between said coverplates,- take pivot-pins 11 from levers 12, there being four of these levers a pair on each side of the spindle. The levers from the upper cover-plate are led to the lower nut-block, and the levers from the lower cover-plate are led to the upper nut-block, all being pivoted to their respective blocks and the levers of each pair being secured to the other member of the pair at the point of intersection by a fulcrum-pin 1%, as shown, thus giving them a shear-action. These toggle or shear-levers, as they are called, have their short arms extending from the fulcrum-pin to the adjacent connection with the two nut-blocks, and their long arms extending from said pin to the shifting connection with the cover-plates by means of the slots and pins.

It will be noticed that the slotted hangers from the upper coverplate should be set outside the plane of those on the lower, and that the levers from these upper hangers are sunk their thickness into seats in the lower nut-block, thus enabling the levers of a pair to properly shear past each other. hen, therefore, the spindle is operated to spread the nuts apart the levers, acting upon the slotted hangers, will expand the binder, and when the nuts are retracted or closed together the levers will act to close the binder. In the expanding and contracting movements the inner ends of the levers are compelled to a movement in right lines perpendicular to the cover-plates, because the mechanism, in the present instance the nutblocks and the double threaded screw, which spreads them apart and draws them together, confines them to such lines. The fulcrum-pins of the two pairs will conse quently be drawn together when the binder is expanded, and moved apart when the binder is contracted. Allowance for this endwise movement, and for the resultant trajectory of the outer ends of the long arms of lever, must be made in the shifting guides or connections between said ends and the cover-plates, or whatever takes the place of such guides.

Instead of securing slotted hangers to the cover-plates, the slots may be formed in the flanges of these plates, for instance in the perpendicular flanges, and instead of making them oblique they may be parallel with the horizontal flanges, all as shown at 10 in Fig. 4, the advantage in the inwardly and onvergingly trending slots being in somewhat accelerated movement and greater expansion. The slots will be so limited in length as to stop the expansion before the nut-blocks run off the spindle, the blocks themselves serving as stops in the other direction. Or, in place of slotted guides, the ends of the long arms of the shear levers may, as indicated in Fig. 5, be connected to links or radius bars 10*, pivoted at one end to the vertical flanges of the cover-plates and striking against suitable stops 10 at one extreme of play to prevent the nut-blocks from running off the spindle. Telescoping holding posts 14 are provided to retain the leaves. in the binder. These are preferably made in four inter-telescoping sections, with the base or larger sections attached alternately to top and bottom cover-plates so as to bring the medium sections to the center when the binder is expanded, and thus facilitate the removal and replacing of the leaves.

To check a tendency to slight parallel movement or shift of one cover-plate relatively to the other, analogous to lost motion, throwing the spindle out of line with the key hole, one of the nut-blocks is held against endwise displacement in some suitable manner, as by means of guides or steady pins 15 attached to the corresponding coverplate. The binder is expanded when the nut-blocks are moved apart from each other to spread the power-arms of the shear-levers, and contracted when they are closed together. The levers, nut-blocks and spindle are inside the vertical flanges of the coverplates; but the only purpose in thus'arranging them is neatness of finish and avoidance of projecting and tearing points: mechanically the structure will be the same whether these points are inside or outside.

The levers, the spindle and the nut-blocks, it will be observed, form a skeleton framework when the binder is expanded, serving to protect the rear edges of the leaves, therefore an auxiliary back, or the telescoping or overshutting plates sometimes employed as a back, may be dispensed with, if desired. Herein the drawing represents a construction wherein the perpendicular flanges of the cover-plates overlap or shut past each other when the device is fully closed, thus providing a closed back until the contents inserted between the covers have very considerably expanded the binder.

I do not limit myself to the specific construction herein described, believing my invention to have a broader scope, but

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. The combination of parallel coverplates, two pairs of oppositely extending shear-levers arranged between said coverplates and extending lengthwise thereof, the fulcrum-pivot of each pair being located toward the power end of the pair, shifting hinge-connections between the ends of the outer or longer arms of each pair and the respective cover-plates, and means acting in right lines for simultaneously spreading or approximating the shorter arms of said pairs along said lines.

2. The combination of parallel coverplates, two pairs of oppositely extending shear-levers arranged between said coverplates and extending lengthwise thereof, the fulcrum-pivot of each pair being located toward the power end of the pair, shifting hinge connections between the ends of the outer or longer arms of each pair and the respective cover-plates, and means acting in right lines, perpendicular to the coverplates, for simultaneously spreading or closing the shorter arms of said pairs along such lines.

3. The combination of parallel coverplates, a right and left screw-threaded keyspindle arranged between said plates and perpendicular thereto, nut-blocks on the respective threads of said spindle, levers fulcrumed in pairs and extending from hinge connections with said blocks, the levers from the lower block to hinge-connections at the opposite ends of the upper cover-plate and the levers from the upper block to hinge-connections at the opposite ends of the lower cover-plate, and means permitting slip located in the train.

4. The combination of parallel coverplates having slots located near their ends and trending longitudinally of the plates, a right and left screw-threaded key-spindle arranged between said plates and perpenthe lower block to hinging connections with 1 the slots at the opposite ends of the upper cover-plate and the levers from the upper block to hinging connections with the slots at the opposite ends of the lower cover-plate.

5. The combination of parallel coverplates having inwardly and convergingly trending guide-slots near their respective ends, a right and left screw-threaded keyspindle arranged between said plates and perpendicular thereto, nut-blocks on the respective threads of said spindle, and levers fulcrumed in pairs and extending from hingeconnections with said blocks to hinging and sliding connections with the slots at opposite ends of the reversely located coverplates.

ARTHUR OPALLA. Witnesses:

GEO. STUHLFAUTH, PAUL MAENLEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). G. 

